Juarez, Mexico - The US Central Intelligence Agency and other international security forces "don't fight drug traffickers", a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico has told Al Jazeera, instead "they try to manage the drug trade".
Allegations about official complicity in the drug business are nothing new when they come from activists, professors, campaigners or even former officials. However, an official spokesman for the authorities in one of Mexico's most violent states - one which directly borders Texas - going on the record with such accusations is unique.

"It's like pest control companies, they only control," Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, the Chihuahua spokesman, told Al Jazeera last month at his office in Juarez. "If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."

I think it's time and past time to legalize and take away most of the cause for this ongoing tragedy. I am anti drug because I believe they destroy lives and souls but people CANNOT be protected from themselves. I don't believe that the CIA is being used as a money making venture and as such is perpetuating the drug war. I think they are just helpless in the face of current laws and realities. Bottom line is that it would take an invasion and occupation of the northern part of Mexico - with all the bloodshed that would entail, to even slow the flood of poison coming north. It's time to admit failure in the war. Have the government tax pot and use the money for rehab programs. Life sentences for second time offenders selling or transporting the heavy stuff. If guns are involved or someone is killed due to violence committed in the transport or sale - automatic death sentence. It sounds harsh but to me the lives of the thousands of Mexicans who are dying currently are just as valuable as the life of an American who is CHOOSING to kill themselves with this crap. The other option seems to be maintain the status quo until Mexico becomes a completely failed State.

We've cast the world, we've set the stage, for what could be, the darkest age...“This is like playing poker with a guy who cheated you twice before. You know who does that, a moron.